The Buildings

Docks needed a variety of functional storage buildings
such as sheds and warehouses. Sheds formed simple
shelters to protect cargoes from the elements while they
were checked and sorted; warehouses provided long-term
storage facilities with a higher degree of security. The
East India Docks were unusual in that they were designed
to have no warehouse provision at all, because the East
India Company had substantial warehousing in the City.
But soon after the opening of the docks, the East India
Company realized that some on-site warehouses would
be useful.

When the company's monopoly was partially broken
in 1813 and the India trade opened to private merchants,
it was thought
["]expedient that Accommodation should be made in the said
Docks for the shipping which shall be engaged in such private
Trade, and that Warehouses, Cranes, Sheds and other Conveniences should be erected in the said docks for the safe
custody of certain goods, wares and merchandize imported in
private trade and unladen from such shipping.["] (fn. 5)

Most warehouses and sheds in any dock were simple
buildings with little architectural pretension. The warehouses built in the East India Docks to the designs of
Ralph Walker were purely functional; they were certainly
conservative in appearance. They were more progressive
in constructional terms, however, employing materials
such as cast iron, which was coming into increasing use
during the second decade of the nineteenth century under
the influence of John Rennie and other leading engineers.
Its high compressive strength made it an ideal material
for the internal columns of warehouses. The cruciform
cross-section used in these early cast-iron columns
remained the commonest form in the timber-floored
warehouses of London throughout the nineteenth
century.

Import Dock: North Quay

Saltpetre Warehouses.

A group of three sheds or
warehouses for the storage of saltpetre was built on the
north quay of the Import Dock between 1806 and 1810.
They were plain single-storey slated buildings, designed
by Ralph Walker. Warehouse No. 1 was constructed
between September 1806 and February 1808, at a total
cost of £4,398. It was built of brick supplied by Trimmers, and was erected by Thomas Crawford of Blackwall. (fn. 6) The largest construction cost (of £1,187) was for
carpenter's work from Henry Rowles, Carpenter to the
East India Company. Saltpetre Warehouses Nos 2 and 3
were built between 1808 and 1810 at a cost of £4,438
and £4,879 respectively, and again Rowles's charges were
the largest items. (fn. 7) Both were 150ft long and 50ft deep,
with slate roofs supported on oak queen-post trusses.

In 1855 accommodation for 12,000 tons of guano was
provided in a shed at the back of the warehouses at a
cost of £2,600. (fn. 8) Sheds were built linking the three
warehouses and there was continuous shedding along the
rear of the whole length. The warehouses continued to
be used for saltpetre, with the sheds storing lint and
other seeds. (fn. 9) In 1859 the guano shed was taken down
and the materials were re-used for a shed for the export
trade. (fn. 10)

Warehouses Nos 15–19: The Jute and Seed Warehouses.

The north quay increasingly was used for the
landing of jute imports, accommodated in the warehouses
and sheds built for the purpose. By 1863 there were five
timber sheds in front of the warehouses. (fn. 11) Nevertheless,
the jute and other 'fibrous goods' were also stored on the
open quays, because there was insufficient space in the
buildings. (fn. 12) On 17 March 1865 a fire swept through the
buildings on the north quay. The accident was blamed
on the storage of jute in the open. (fn. 13)

The dock company acted quickly to provide replacements for the buildings destroyed and in June 1865
approved the erection of three new warehouses. These
were built by William Brass and designated Nos 15, 16
and 17 shed-warehouses. (fn. 14) Each was 213ft long and 82ft
deep, with a floor area of 16,720 sq.ft, and a double-span
roof of iron and slate. The flooring was laid on iron girders
supported on cast-iron columns. (fn. 15) The new warehouses,
which cost £4,892 each, (fn. 16) were built up to the dock
company's boundary on the Barking Road.

Nos 18 and 19 Warehouses, the former saltpetre warehouses, were damaged in the fire, but were repairable.
The reinstatement was carried out by Hill & Keddell, to
the designs of E. J. Leonard (the dock company's
Engineer), at a cost of £2,796. (fn. 17)

The new jute warehouses were designed to be fireproof, with a total of 21 iron doors. Nevertheless, there
were damaging fires at No. 17 in 1873 and 1905. (fn. 18) This
warehouse was rebuilt in 1905 to the original design at a
cost of £1,575. (fn. 19) With the decline in the jute trade, the
dock company was prepared to consider alternative uses
for the north quay of the import dock; in 1893 it was
suggested that it should be redeveloped for housing. (fn. 20)
By 1901, Nos 18 and 19 were the only warehouses
approved for fibre storage (wool, jute and coir); Nos 15,
16 and 17 were then occupied by Messrs Johnson &
Jorgensen, glass-bottle manufacturers, who also occupied
Shed No 1. Nos 2–5 were used for the storage of general
export goods by the dock company. (fn. 21) These single-storey
wooden buildings had been constructed for fibre storage
in the mid-nineteenth century.

Warehouses Nos 1, 2 and 3.

In 1912–13 the LCC
widened the East India Dock Road along the north side
of the dock company's land (see page 122). The PLA
sold the council a strip of land 25ft wide for £20,000. (fn. 22)
This necessitated the demolition of all the buildings on
the north quay of the Import Dock. A new boundary wall,
completed in July 1915. was built by John Mowlem &
Company at a cost of £13,202. (fn. 23) The quay was widened
by 20ft as part of the general programme of improvements. (fn. 24) The buildings were replaced by three singlestorey transit sheds, each 408ft long and 110ft wide,
with shallow-pitched double roofs. (fn. 25) In 1913 Chatteris
Engineering Works Company supplied three 15cwt moveable electric quay cranes for £885. (fn. 26)

The new buildings were adapted for use by the meat
trade. This work included the provision, in 1915–18, of
cold storage facilities, and internal railways and platforms
at the rear of the buildings. (fn. 27)

Nos 2 and 3 sheds were damaged during the Second
World War, but subsequently were reinstated. (fn. 28) Coast
Lines Ltd had occupied some of the buildings before
they were requisitioned for wartime use, and the company
returned in 1946, (fn. 29) remaining there until the closure of
the docks.

Import Dock: South Quay

No. 1 Warehouse.

This was a saltpetre warehouse
erected in 1814–16 at the east end of the south quay of
the Import Dock at a cost of £2,390; a shed was built in
front of the building. George Munday undertook the
brickwork and Thomas Kinghorn slated the roofs.
Another saltpetre warehouse was built adjacent to the
first in 1816 and was known as 'Auxiliary to No. 1'. (fn. 30)
Both were single-storey brick buildings, similar in design
to the saltpetre warehouses on the north quay of the
Import Dock.

A devastating fire in December 1900 destroyed No. 1
Warehouse and the adjoining quay sheds, (fn. 31) and they
were replaced in 1901–2 by a single-storey flat-roofed
building in ferro-concrete, one of the earliest uses of this
material in the Port of London. Following its employment
at the Liverpool and Southampton docks, and for new
warehouses at the Royal Albert Dock, the Hennebique
reinforced-concrete system was chosen, on a tender of
£3,900 from A. Jackaman & Son of Slough (who was the
contractor for the ferro-concrete warehouses at the Royal
Albert Dock). The new work was designed by C. E.
Vernon, the Joint Committee's Engineer, and L. G.
Mouchel, Hennebique's agent in London, prepared the
specifications. The total cost was £10,139. (fn. 32) The flat
roof leaked, and in 1903 it was covered in asphalt at an
estimated cost of £1,200 (Plate 61b). (fn. 33)

Nos 2 and 3, 4 and 5, and 6 and 7 Warehouses.

Between 1814 and 1821 three pairs of bonded warehouses
were built along the south quay of the Import Dock for
the use of the private trade. They were designed by Ralph
Walker, the dock company's Engineer. (fn. 34) Constructed in
brick, with prominent, rather barn-like hipped roofs,
these warehouses were modest in scale, being only two
storeys high, though numbers 6 & 7 (the last to be built)
were raised over a semi-basement. Their basically plain
elevations were enlivened with blind arcading which
embraced the upper as well as the lower windows. As in
all the early warehouses, the window openings were fitted
with spiked iron grilles (Plate 62c).

Nos 2 & 3 Warehouses were built to accommodate the
anticipated rise in imports generated by the opening to
private trade of Indian goods. They were erected between
1814 and 1816 at a total cost of £7,609. A shed costing
£1,425 was erected in front of them in 1816. The builder
was George Munday, who was paid £2,206, and the
cast-iron posts, iron window frames and four, doublepurchase, fixed cranes were supplied by Hunter & English
of Bow. (fn. 35) Warehouses 2 & 3 were damaged in the fire of
1900 and were restored in 1901–2 (Plate 63d). (fn. 36)

Built in 1816, Nos 4 & 5 Warehouses were similar in
design to Nos 2 & 3 Warehouses and were built by the
same contractors. They cost £7,210 A shed was placed
in front of the building. (fn. 37)

The foundation stone for Nos 6 & 7 Warehouses was
laid by Joseph Cotton, Chairman of the East India Dock
Company, in 1820, and the building was completed in
1821 at a cost of £13,580. (fn. 38) Of this, £4,219 was paid
to George Munday for brickwork. (fn. 39) These warehouses
survived into the 1950s (Plate 63a). They were constructed with timber queen-post roof-trusses, and castiron columns, purchased from Hunter & English, carried
the first-floor joists and the brick vaulting in the basement, where they were cruciform in section (Plate 63b).
A similar use of cast-iron cruciform columns can be
found in the contemporary crypt of All Saints' Church.

The principal reason for building Warehouses Nos 6 &
7 was the problem of storing coconut oil and tamarind,
which was dangerously piled in casks, stacked four-high,
in the existing warehouses. The dock company intended
that these goods were to be removed to the cellars and
floors of one of the new warehouses, while the other could
accommodate ships' canvas sails. (fn. 40) This may explain why
the warehouses were built with lots of quay space in
front of them, to allow the easy manoeuvring of barrels
and casks. In 1835 HM Customs approved the upper
floors of Warehouses Nos 2 & 3 and 4 & 5 as suitable
for the reception of tea. (fn. 41)

Nos 6 & 7 Warehouses were demolished in 1959,
settlement of their foundations having made them unusable for storage. (fn. 42)

Nos 8 and 9 Warehouses.

These three-storey warehouses were built in 1866 by Hill & Keddell at a cost of
£16,330 (Plates 63c, 107a; fig. 220). (fn. 43) They were of
brick, with hipped roofs behind a parapet. Their spiked
iron window grilles were similar to those in the East
India Company's Pepper Warehouses, erected in 1807–
10, and they resembled the row of warehouses built on
the north quay of the Import Dock at the West India
Docks in 1800–3. Indeed, these largely utilitarian buildings, with their dignified facades, were characteristic of
dock warehousing and exemplify the conservatism in
dock architecture in the nineteenth century. In 1937–9
these, Nos 6 & 7, and Nos 12 & 13, on the west quay,
were converted for the storage of tobacco. (fn. 44)

Sheds.

By 1841 a shed ran almost the whole length of
the dock, and there were three others in front of the
warehouses. In 1871 shed accommodation at the East
India Docks was reported to be inadequate for the
steamers that required rapid discharge. Four new sheds
were built on the south quay in 1873, one at each end of
the row of warehouses, one between Nos 2 & 3 and 4 &
5, and one between Nos 4 & 5 and 6 & 7. (fn. 45)

Import Dock: West Quay

Quayside Sheds.

On the west quay, beside the water of
the Import Dock, Rennie and Walker erected slate-roofed
sheds that were '30 feet wide and about 12 feet high,
placed parallel to the Quay and 10 feet distant from it'. (fn. 46)
They were designed to provide convenience in unloading
from the ships to the horse-drawn wagons that transferred
the goods to the warehouses in Cutler Street. Walker
explained that
The waggon by setting their [sic] end against the platform, will
occupy the least room on the quay. They will be in the most
convenient situation for departing with their load, and as three
shoots or slides may be applied to the side of the vessel abreast
each hatchway, the goods may be thrown down them, to that
place on the stage, where they are to be loaded into the
waggons. (fn. 47)

No. 14 Warehouse.

In 1824–5 Warehouse No. 14. with
a baggage warehouse attached, was built on the west quay
at a cost of £5,858. This, the first warehouse at the East
India Docks designed by James Walker, (fn. 48) was a twostorey brick building of conventional character, with a
stone floor. All the bricklayers work was undertaken by
Henry and John Lee. (fn. 49) It was designed to be used to
store baggage, and in 1855. when a part of it was needed
for sugar, the flooring had to be strengthened, at a cost
of £138. (fn. 50) A fire in 1939 caused slight damage to the
ground-floor store-room. (fn. 51)

Nos 12 and 13 Warehouses.

After the dock company's
monopoly expired in 1827, the East India Company
agreed to continue to operate through the docks (see page
580). To accommodate it, the dock company rapidly built
these two three-storey warehouses on the west quay of
the Import Dock, to the south of No. 14 Warehouse.
They were designed by James Walker and built in 1827–9.
The building and carpentry work was carried out by
Thomas Corpe. (fn. 52) A shed was built connecting Nos 12 &
13 Warehouses with No. 14, and all three warehouses
stood behind a single-storey wooden shed with brick
ends, that lay beside the quay. (fn. 53)

Much of this quay was damaged during the Second
World War. No. 13 Warehouse was destroyed and Nos
12 & 14 were damaged. (fn. 54) By 1951 the whole of the west
quay had been cleared. (fn. 55)

Import Dock: East Quay

East Warehouse.

The east quay initially was used for
the storage of ballast and wood. The East India Company
had the right to land and store wood here, in a stockaded
enclosure 200ft by 60ft. (fn. 56) A two-storey brick warehouse
with an iron-and-slate roof was built on the quay in 1837.
The estimated cost was £3,300; the tenders of James
Brown of College Hill for £2,497, for building work, and
of Ebenezer Robert Dewer of Old Street for £748, for
founders work, were accepted. The upper floor was used
for storing coffee. (fn. 57)

No. 4 Shed.

The PLA's improvements to the docks in
1912–16 included the construction of a two-storey transit
shed on the east quay, 420ft long and 50ft wide, replacing
the East Warehouse. Designated No. 4 Shed, it was
identical in design to the transit sheds on the north quay
of the West India Import Dock, also built at this time.
In 1916 office accommodation was provided in the building for the Superintendent of HM Customs, and Scrutton's Ltd. (fn. 58)

Export Dock: North Quay

As early as 1806 the East India Dock Company stated
that it would be convenient to owners of East India
shipping if storehouses were to be erected on the north
side of the outward bound dock for stores, rigging and
furniture of East India ships'. (fn. 59) A variety of storehouses
was built on the north quay in the early years of the
nineteenth century.

Nos. 1,2 and 3 (Cotton) Warehouses.

Designed by Ralph
Walker, these warehouses were erected on the north quay
in 1815–16 at a cost of £2,199, the main contractors being
George Munday (brickwork) and Christopher Richardson & Son of Limehouse (carpentry). (fn. 60) They were two
storeys high on the north side and one storey on the south
and east sides, and had blind arcaded elevations (Plate
149a). Their large barn-like hipped roofs, carried on queenpost trusses, were slated by Thomas Kinghorn of Stratford. (fn. 61) A variety of goods, including cotton, was stored in
these warehouses and in 1862 they were divided into several
compartments. (fn. 62) In 1900, D. Currie and Fyffe, Hudson &
Company rented part of the ground floor of the Cotton
Warehouses, measuring 80ft by 40ft, for the storage of
bananas, and by 1906 the building was described as a
banana-ripening warehouse. (fn. 63) By 1921 the warehouses
were adapted to allow for the storage of oil. They were
severely damaged by bombing in the Second World War
and were demolished in 1946–7. (fn. 64)

Nos 8, 9 and 10 Sheds.

These were single-storey wooden
buildings, perhaps erected in 1860. (fn. 65) Some of the other
sheds erected around the dock in the 1850s and 1860s
were placed on this quay, including one built in 1850 at
an estimated cost of £320. (fn. 66)

Export Dock: South and East Quays

Nos 14, 15, 16 and 17 Sheds.

In 1844 there were two
small sheds on the south quay, which were regarded as
'quite inadequate'. Carden & Hack replaced them with
two new sheds, each 100ft by 30ft, one on the south
quay and the other on the east quay. (fn. 67) These were later
replaced by three single-storey wooden buildings on the
south quay (Nos 14, 15 and 16 Sheds) and one on the
east quay (No. 17). The south quay sheds stood in front
of the London and Blackwall Railway terminus. In 1859,
a 50–ton crane was installed on the south quay to serve
the new railway terminus. (fn. 68) No. 17 was demolished when
the new passage to the Entrance Basin was constructed
in 1895–7.

Export Dock: West Quay

No. 4 Shed.

This may have been one of the sheds
erected around the dock in the mid-nineteenth century.
It burned down in 1875, and was rebuilt in such a way
as to support an upper storey later if needed. The
replacement was built by J. Perry & Company at an
estimated cost of £797. (fn. 69)

Warehouses on the Entrance Basin

1877 Warehouses.

In 1877 several new three-storey
brick warehouses for the import and export business were
built on the north and east quays of the newly extended
East India Dock Basin (Plate 65c). Augustus Manning
designed these as fire-proof buildings. (fn. 70) In the building
on the east quay, the ground floors were built for the
reception of export goods, while the upper floors were
intended for imports. At first-floor height (of both the
warehouses and quays) was an overhead gallery or crane
road, on which travelling hydraulic cranes for discharging
cargoes into loopholes on the first and second floors were
worked. (fn. 1) This ingenious mechanism prevented interference with the lower quay and the railway lines which
provided transport for the export trade. (fn. 72) To the rear of
the buildings, many entrances into the delivery yard
allowed the land carriage business to proceed without
interruption to the quayside activity.

For much of the nineteenth century the east quay was
used exclusively by the Union Castle Line of Cape mail
steamers belonging to Messrs Donald Currie & Company.
A three-storey brick warehouse on the north quay was
used for the same purpose. Both warehouses, built in
1877, had transit verandas which facilitated fast unloading. (fn. 73)

Engine Houses

Steam power was needed for the construction of the
docks, and engine houses were among the earliest ancillary
buildings to be erected. At the East India Docks two
steam engines were required at an early stage, one for
grinding the mortar needed to build the docks, and the
other to pump the water out of the excavations (see fig.
217). (fn. 74)

The smaller engine house for the mortar mill, which
may have been designed by John Rennie, was erected in
1804, and used for the first time in January 1805. It stood
near the company's wharf on the River Lea, on land
afterwards sold to the East India Company. Boulton &
Watt supplied some of the machinery for this mill, but
the main engine was purchased from the Hull-based firm
of Pearse, Wray & Company at a cost of £550. (fn. 75) After
selling the land in 1807, the dock company allowed the
mortar mill to remain on site for a time for the use of
the East India Company (see page 656). (fn. 76) No illustration
of the building is known.

The water pumping engine, or 'Great Steam Engine'
as it was originally known, was erected in 1803–4, at a
cost of over £14,000. Situated on the quay between the
Export Dock and the Entrance Basin, this building,
which also comprised a residence for the principal enginekeeper, was designed by John Rennie and Ralph Walker,
and built by James & William Green of Mile End. (fn. 77)
Boulton & Watt supplied the engine, which was operated
for the first time in October 1804, 'when she went off
very pleasantly. (fn. 78) The engine house itself was a rather
domestic-looking building comprising a central threestorey three-bay block, flanked north and south by two
two-storey wings with semi-circular recesses in the upper
storey (Plate 64b). On the ground storey all the door and
window openings were round-headed and recessed within
shallow arches, similar to those at the Principal Dockmaster's house. Although the building was provided
with two substantial chimney stacks, the absence of a
characteristic tall engine-house chimney is noticeable.
Illustrations give the impression that the building was
stuccoed, but if original proposals were followed the
exterior was, in fact, faced with malm bricks. (fn. 79) The
building survived into the 1850s.

In the 1850s a new generation of engine houses was
required at the East and West India Docks to provide
hydraulic power for the new cranes and other hydraulically operated equipment then being introduced at the
docks. At the East India Docks a hydraulic pumping
station was erected in 1857–8, not within the dock walls,
but on the south side of East India Dock Wall Road, east
of Naval Row. Surprisingly, this building still stands. It
is described on page 637. It owes its survival to its slightly
detached location and to the continuing demand for
hydraulic power at the East India Docks, which lasted
until they closed in the 1960s. The building was extended
in 1877–8 to accommodate the additional machinery
needed to meet the increased demand for power caused
by the building of warehouses around the enlarged basin
and by the new hydraulically operated lock gates. As part
of this campaign of improvements, a remote accumulator
tower was erected at the Basin in 1878. Situated close to
the boundary with Orchard Wharf, it was a square brick
tower with a low pyramidal roof and wooden finial,
similar in style to the two surviving accumulator towers
erected at the same time at Poplar Dock. (fn. 80) The tower
was demolished in the 1970s.

Another engine house to survive the closure of the
East India Docks was the impounding station erected on
the south-east quay of the Import Dock in the late 1890s
as part of a scheme of works which included rebuilding
the communication between the Export Dock and the
Basin and improvements to the lock between the Basin
and the Import Dock. Designed by the Dock Company's
Engineer, H. F. Donaldson, the impounding station is a
single-storey red-brick shed with stone cornices and
copings, detailed in a style faintly suggestive of the lateseventeenth-century English vernacular manner, with
pedimented end elevations, broad pilaster strips, and
small-pane windows. It has a slated roof supported on
steel trusses. The building originally housed three
pumping engines, supplied by Sir W. G. Armstong
Whitworth & Company, and a 10-ton travelling overhead
crane. (fn. 81)

Offices

Two early offices were among the most enduring of the
ancillary buildings erected at the East India Docks, but
dock offices generally were rather fugitive structures.
Because there were originally no large warehouses at the
East India Docks, there was no immediate requirement
for a permanent office, like the Ledger Building at the
West India Docks. Offices could not be dispensed with
altogether, however, and from an early date there was a
small dock office just inside the main gate next to the
west boundary wall, which, however, soon disappeared. (fn. 82)
The construction of warehouses along the north side of
the Export Dock in 1815–16 led to the building of a
general office at the west end of this quay, close to the
entrance in East India Dock Wall Road. Erected from
Walker's designs, this was a plain single-storey brick
building, partly top-lit by means of a glazed lantern or
clerestory, with an entrance in the centre of the west
front through a porch flanked by paired pilasters. This
building survived until after the Second World War. (fn. 83)

The most substantial of the early offices was built at
the behest of the East India Company to accommodate
the influx of clerks, merchants and brokers 'attending'
the docks as a result of the new agreement between the
East India Company and the dock company signed in
1827. To begin with they were given accommodation
in the board-room over the main gate, but this was
unsatisfactory — for 'besides its deficiency in room [it] is
not in a good situation' — and the East India Company
suggested that new offices should be erected a little to
the south-east of the main gate (see fig. 218). The new
building was designed by James Walker and erected in
1828–9 by Thomas Corpe, junior, who received £2,665
for his work. (fn. 84) It was a completely detached two-storey
block, roughly oblong in plan, with a raised ground floor
over a basement. The exterior was brick-faced, and, to
judge from the few glimpses of the building which survive
in photographs, was very plain, the only decorative
features, apart from some stone bandcourses, being a
dignified tetrastyle portico and flight of steps on the
north front, where the principal entrance was situated.
Over the years the building was altered several times, the
interior being rearranged to suit changing usage, which
included a period as a dockmaster's house. It was demolished in the 1930s.

Of the many later offices erected at the East India
Docks, two neo-Georgian examples may be mentioned.
The earlier was built in 1917 near the main gate, between
the old offices and No. 14 Warehouse, and jointly occupied by the PLA and Nelson Line. This was a twostorey red-brick block, square on plan except for a splayed
north-west side, with small-pane Georgian windows,
stone dressings and brick quoins. It was apparently
designed within the PLA, presumably by the Chief
Engineer. (fn. 85)

A more substantial but architecturally more refined
essay in the same style followed in 1924–5, when another
two-storey range of offices was erected for the PLA along
the west quay of the Import Dock. In December 1921,
the company's Engineer, Cyril R. S. Kirkpatrick, reported
that the quays, sheds and offices on the north quay of
the Export Dock were dilapidated. Several schemes for
redevelopment were put forward but it was thought not
worthwhile to carry any of them out, as the dock generated little income. In December 1922 (Sir) Thomas
Edwin Cooper (1873–1942), architect of the PLA's
imposing headquarters buildings in Trinity Square, was
asked to prepare plans and estimates for an office building
for staff to be built at the north-west corner of the Export
Dock (Plate 66a). His design was for a building 145ft
long with adjoining dining-rooms and lavatories, which
he estimated would cost £7,060. The contract for the
office building was awarded to Walter Lawrence & Son
and the work was completed by March 1924. (fn. 86) It was a
long, low brick building with regular fenestration. The
internal fitting-out of the office was undertaken by
J. Mowlem & Company in March 1925, and the office
was reported to have been completed by May at a total
cost of £7,274. (fn. 87) The office range was demolished for
the building of the Brunswick Wharf Power Station.

Housing

In common with the other dock companies, the East
India Dock Company erected houses and other accommodation at the docks for the use of its employees.
Although originally fewer in number and type than the
comparable accommodation provided at the West India
Docks, they ranged, downwards, from a large detached
house for the Principal Dockmaster in the East India
Dock Road to small quayside shelters for the lock-keeper.
None of these buildings has survived, and in many cases
there is no record of their appearance, apart from an
outline shape on a plan.

In the early years of the East India Docks the houses
occupied by the company's dockmasters were naturally
the most substantial, but of the three dockmasters in the
original establishment only the Principal Dockmaster
rated a new, purpose-built house, the others having to
make do with renovated houses in the vicinity. The
practice of taking over existing buildings began almost
as soon as work started on the docks, when the Engineer,
Ralph Walker, was given accommodation in the old
copperas house beside the River Lea, which the dock
company had acquired as part of one of the properties
purchased for making the docks. After being vacated by
Walker, this house continued to be used as a residence
for dock officials until the early 1870s (see page 662).

The new Principal Dockmaster's house stood just
outside the main entrance to the docks on the south side
of East India Dock Road, the site now covered by the
approach road to the Blackwall Tunnel. (fn. 88) Erected in
1806–7, from the designs of the company's Surveyor,
Thomas Swithin, this house was demolished in the late
1880s, and its appearance is known only from a couple
of incongruent engravings. (fn. 89) The best of these show a
fairly plain, probably stuccoed, detached house of two
bays and three full storeys plus attics, flanked by two low
single-storey wings. The attics were contained within a
tall M-shaped mansard roof. On the ground floor, the
door and window openings were set within shallow
relieving arches. (fn. 90)

Only one of the early dockmasters lived inside the
boundary walls of the docks, and his house, on the east
quay of the Entrance Basin, was an old building, formerly
part of Mather's blubber-boiling premises which had
been 'patched up for the purpose'. (fn. 91) Daniell provides a
distant view of it in his panorama of 1808. This house
was demolished in 1815, when the basin was extended,
and the Assistant Dockmaster was rehoused outside the
dock wall in a new residence in Leamouth Road, designed
by Walker, which survived into the 1930s (Plate 111b),
although by then it had long ceased to be used as a
residence by dock officials. The rehousing of the Assistant
Dockmaster in a new purpose-built residence did not
signal an end to the practice of converting existing
buildings, and in the 1870s both the General Office
Building, just inside the main gate, and the former
Brunswick Tavern on Brunswick Wharf, were refurbished
for occupation by the Dockmaster.

Among the smaller structures erected to provide shelter
for the company's employees, the most distinctive was
the lodge or cabin for the lock-gate keeper erected in
1819–20 on the eastern pier of the docks entrance lock.
Designed by Walker, this was a single-storey hexagonal
brick structure with a slated roof and central chimney,
which survived into the 1930s (Plate 64c). (fn. 92)

The Boundary Walls

Apart from the curtailed Entrance Basin, the most substantial surviving remains of the East India Docks system
are two much-repaired stretches of the high brick wall
around the Import Dock enclosure. The longest stretch,
of over 1,000ft, consists of part of the western perimeter
wall, a portion of the southern wall and the curved
interconnecting section at the south-west corner (Plate
66b). The other stretch is a carefully conserved 230ftlong section of the eastern perimeter wall, now stranded,
like some venerable antiquity, on the central reservation
of the recently widened Leamouth Road (Plate 66c).

Because the valuable goods unloaded at the East India
Docks were not originally stored on site, a high wall
around the Import Dock enclosure was thought to be
sufficient for the protection of the site, without the
ditches and other security devices found at the West
India Docks. To start with, only the East India Import
Dock was secured by a high wall, the Export Dock and
Entrance Basin being protected by fences. The latter
were replaced by 15ft-high brick walls in 1814–16, when
warehouses were erected at the docks, but these do not
survive. (fn. 93)(fn. 2)

The wall around the Import Dock was erected 'under
the Inspection' of the dock company's two engineers, John
Rennie and Ralph Walker, and was doubtless designed
by them. (fn. 95) Trimmers supplied the bricks, McIntosh
excavated the foundations, and Richards & Crawford
undertook the building work, for which they had tendered
at the rate of £2 10s per rod. (fn. 96) Construction was delayed
while the docks themselves were being excavated, so as
not to impede access to the site, and work on the wall
did not begin until the autumn of 1805. (fn. 97)(fn. 3) By mid-July
1806 the wall had been completed to its full height along
nearly four-fifths of its length, and the remainder was
within 5ft of completion. The engineers expected the
work to be finished within the week, 'if the weather
continues favourable'. (fn. 99) The cost was £18,750, of which
more than half (£10,150) was spent on buying bricks. As
Trimmer usually supplied stocks at the rate of £2 per
1,000, some five million bricks must have been used in
the construction. (fn. 100)

Rising to nearly 20ft, the wall is tapered in section
and strengthened at intervals by battered buttresses.
Originally, it was pierced in three places: at the northwest corner, where the main entrance to the docks stood
(see below); at the south-east corner, flanking the lock
connecting the Entrance Basin and the Import Dock; and
on the east side where there was a gateway into Leamouth
Road. This last still survives and has recently been
renovated: it consists of a simple arched opening flanked
by round-headed niches. A large stretch of the wall along
the south side, including the rounded south-west corner
overlooking Naval Row, is not the original structure, but
dates from 1833–4, when the wall here was rebuilt further
back to allow the new road to Brunswick Wharf to be
squeezed in between the dock wall and Naval Row. (fn. 101)
Designed by James Walker, this stretch of wall is now
similar to the earlier portions, with battered pilasters, but
photographs as late as 1947 clearly show that the pilasters
were formerly more like giant piers whose tops rose above
the top of the wall itself (Plate 107b). At the south-west
corner there is a small iron door in an iron-framed
doorway which probably dates from 1833–4. Other openings along the south and west sides are all recent.

The original long stretch of perimeter wall on the
north side of the Import Dock, next to the East India
Dock Road, was taken down in 1912, when the road was
widened, and replaced by a much lower red-brick wall
with recessed panels, stone coping and stone-capped
piers. Built by Mowlems, (fn. 102) this replacement survived
into the late 1980s.

Main Gate, East India Dock Road

In the absence of impressive stacks of warehouses, the
construction of an imposing main gate provided almost
the only opportunity for architectural display at the
original East India Docks. Situated aslant the north-west
corner of the Import Dock and rising to nearly 70ft, this
gateway — and its replacement of 1913–14 — was a
prominent local landmark, which for 150 years closed the
vista at the eastern end of the East India Dock Road
(Plates 61a, 62a, b).

It was designed by the dock engineer, Ralph Walker, (fn. 103)
and took the form of a three-gate triumphal arch with a
tall central attic storey surmounted by a metal clock-andbell turret. The height of the building in relation to its
width was balanced by the addition of two narrow flanking
wings, one on each side of the central three bays. These
contained porters' rooms and staircases. Although built
of brick, the west (or road) front of the gateway was
faced in ashlared Dundee stone and on this side the
ground storey was dressed with a giant order of pilasters.
The attic storey contained the East India Dock Company's board-room, lit by a large tripartite round-headed
window in the east wall. There was no corresponding
window on the west front, where the wall space was taken
up with a long inscription recording the building of the
docks and the names of prominent individuals involved.

Walker's plans for the gateway were approved in
December 1805, by which time the foundations were
already in hand, but the work appears not to have been
completed until about 1807, although it was sufficiently
well advanced when the docks were opened to be hailed
by The Times as a 'sumptuous stone gateway, adorned
with emblematical sculpture'. (fn. 104)(fn. 4)The building work had
been largely in the hands of the contractors employed
elsewhere on the docks: McIntosh dug the foundations,
Richards & Crawford built the structure, Kingsell &
Company undertook the plumber's work, and Bailey &
Company were responsible for the ironmongery, which
presumably included the 25cwt of cast-iron ribs specified
for the clock-and-bell turret. John Brockbank of Cowper's
Court, Cornhill, supplied the clock and the bell. The
well-known fanlight makers and decorative ironsmiths
Underwood & Doyle provided iron railings for an internal
gallery, while the furniture for the board-room was
purchased from Remington & Company. (fn. 106) The total cost
(to March 1808) was £5,518. (fn. 107)

The original gateway survived until 1912, when it was
dismantled to allow for the widening of the East India
Dock Road and the extension of the metropolitan tramway
into Essex. (fn. 108) By this time the area in front of the gate
had become a Speakers' Corner of the East End, long
used as a rallying point and place of public oratory by
trade unionists and politicians. (fn. 109) In 1913–14 the PLA
erected a new entrance on a site to the south of the old.
This new entrance was a quasi facsimile of the old, the
principal difference being that it lacked the flanking
wings, thus emphasizing the design's tall but narrowshouldered look. Although faced in stone at the front
(and brick at the back) the new gateway was constructed
of ferro concrete using Hennebique's system (also
employed for the rebuilding of No. 1 Warehouse on the
south quay of the Import Dock). (fn. 110) Dove Brothers were
the principal contractors. (fn. 111) A new inscription was provided, cut in granite blocks. The old inscription over the
gateway, which had been cut in Dundee Stone, had
deteriorated to the point of illegibility. When this second
gateway was demolished in 1958 for the new northern
approach road to the Black wall Tunnel, the inscribed
blocks were re-erected close by as a memorial to the gate.
Though still nearby, this memorial has been re-sited
since 1986.

Footnotes

1. Loopholes are the vertical series of doors from which the goods, in craning, are delivered into a warehouse.

2. In the event the walls proved to be scalable, and in 1820 the Treasury suggested that the docks might be better secured from
pilfering either by raising the wall or by placing chevaux de frise along the top. Neither suggestion appears to have been adopted.

3. At one point early in 1806 Richards & Crawford were relieved of the wall contract for non-attendance and neglect of the work.
The reason was that Crawford had been very ill while Richards was away in Bristol supervising a contract at the docks there.
Arrangements were made to employ other contractors, but the directors relented and they were re-instated.

4. The sculptural embellishments mentioned by The Times are a bit of a mystery. They do not appear to be included in the building
accounts, but at least one (rather dim) early engraving shows what look like four carved trophies on the parapets flanking the central
bay.